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Think we all know what our strengths and weaknesses are by now. LOL, we have been looking at this team under a microscope for the past month. CB may be the weakest part of the team, but we are better (at least on paper) on the D-Line and are strong at safety, so we may be able to deal with an average CB crew. Plus as many have mentioned, Grymes has made major strides this year. On offense We are fairly set and should be able to move the ball on anyone. I would be shocked if we did not average 22 points a game. We should be close to 24.... So we go back to our defense.... Can we keep opponents from scoring 20 per game? I say we can, especially if we get ahead early to force them to throw the ball.... ST's should still be a strong point with Fipp here....

Agreed,score a little more and prevent others from scoring a little more and we win games as long as we stop making bonehead play call decisions when it counts

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Cowgirls lost significant pieces on the OL going into 2017. No longer is Doug Free at RT or Ron Leary at LG. Neither, IMO, were of Tyron Smith's or Zak Martin's quality but much better than replacements of La'el Collins at RT and either Johnathan Cooper or Emmett Cleary at LG. PFF rated Collins at 42.1 while playing LG in 2016. Certainly doesn't bode well for him setting the world on fire at RT for this year. Cooper was rated at 73.2 playing LG in 2016 (near the bottom of PFF's average grade range. Cleary was way off the charts at 47.1 but higher than Collins. Seems Cooper plays more on running plays with Cleary in against nickel packages. My grade has Cowgirl OL regressing somewhat this year and I don't think their pass blocking is going as good for 2017. Eagles ranked 6th in pass blocking, Cowgirls were 9th. Cowgirl line ranked higher overall because they were 3rd in Run Blocking while we were 13th.

Things appear to be changing for the better for us. Imo, we'll take some teams by surprise. Would love to surprise the "Skins" on their home field. Hehehehehe!! Bout time!!

RE-Dullaz.How many times have we said "oh they lost pieces and are terrible,only to find out that Garrett has once again got them in play mode? I'm not saying NUTTIN until I see both US and THEM play

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Right now, the strengths and weaknesses of their division rivals shouldn't be the Eagles main concern, because no one can yet know how those team's strengths & weaknesses will differ from last year. Instead the Eagles should be thinking more about their own strengths and weaknesses, and be intently focused on accurately gauging who their best athletes are--per position. Over the past several years, as it turned out, some of the best Eagles players in the pre-season didn't become their starters, and in some cases weren't even on the team when the regular season began. For example, in each of the past two years the Eagles have let go or traded a key player that ended up starting for the team that won the Super Bowl. And in both cases that player was let go from a position that turned out to be the Eagles biggest weakness that year, such as at OL in 2015 (Mathis), and at CB in 2016 (Rowe).

Now, once again, I find myself wondering what similar mistakes will be made in the upcoming 2017 pre-season? For example, I can envision CBs Aaron Grymes & C.J. Smith playing their hearts out during the pre-season and looking good enough to be our rightful starters (just as WR Paul Turner did last pre-season on a team full of 2nd rate WRs), only to lose the starting job once the season begins to players with more 'proven' experience like Brooks, Robinson & Mills (who probably won't all work out). Conversely, I can also see the Eagles confidently making Grymes their new starting slot corner in 2017 and letting go of the veteran Brooks, only to find that they desperately need Brooks half way through the season, just as they did with Rowe last year. No current CB should be let go during the pre-season without a superior CB being added to the team (as the Eagles will need all the help they can get at the position). The same is true for linebacker.

At BleedingGreenNation.com, this morning I read Brandon Lee Gowton's list of players he thinks the Eagles are most likely to let go or trade, and got a laugh when he wrote that "future Hall of Famer Paul Turner" will likely find "a place on the Eagles' practice squad". That's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. Every Eagles article I've read in recent months has focused exclusively on Jordan Matthews and Nelson Agholor (and Torrey Smith) as our potential starting slot receiver in 2017. Yet no one (except me) has proposed that Paul Turner could potentially turn out to be our best slot receiver in 2017 (with Jeffrey & Smith on the outside). The astonishing part of this is: it's not an outrageous suggestion--given that (1) Matthews has clearly become injury prone at this stage of his career, and (2) no receiver in recent NFL history has played as badly as Agholor did in his first two seasons, with a similar amount of snaps, and gone on to become a top starting WR in the NFL (or even an especially good one). It's never happened before. (Apparently not even WR Chris Carter, who had a drug problem in Philly, had stats as bad as Agholor's.) And yet with all the recent glowing talk about Agholor's performance at the recent OTAs--about how good he looked & the many great catches he made (with Jalen Mills defending him), I get the impression the Eagles think Agholor is ready to become our top slot receiver for 2017 and may even challenge Jeffrey & Smith on the outside.

Now, that can't be completely ruled out, as there's always a first time (& Mike Groh may indeed get Agholor back on track--since it's possible that Agholor's dismal play over the past two years wasn't entirely his fault). Therefore, by all means give Agholor a final chance to prove himself in the 2017 pre-season & if he does, great! (then the Eagles will have the option of trading him for a very good linebacker or potential starting cornerback!). In other words, no matter what the eventual outcome is, right now, it's best for the Eagles coaches, media, & fans to remain positive and optimistic on Agholor, as the team can only benefit from encouraging him: since clearly Agholor himself needs to believe he can do it. And who knows, maybe he will put 2015 & 16 far behind him, and silence all criticism in 2017. I hope so.

But, at the end of the day, what the Eagles should really be thinking about Agholor's glowing performance in the OTAs is, more cautiously--if a WR as poor (in the past) as Agholor is beating Jalen Mills in the OTAs, then Mills is likely no where near ready to be our starting CB in 2017, as many have projected. Which suggests that C. J. Smith, Rasul Douglas, Patrick Robinson, & Aaron Grymes, etc., should be given lots of extra playing time in the pre-season games to fully prove what they can do.

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Mr Simpson: Excellent post - however, I disagree somewhat on your discussion on Agholor. He has had AMPLE opportunity the past two years. Even if he has eliminated the mental hang-ups (doubtful as yet), he still has to learn to use his physical attributes to run precise patterns and gain separation......but the Eagles have given him enough chances. Release him, if no one else is foolish to trade for him.

Eagles had third fewest roster turnover in the league while Cowboys had second most:

This is a good sign,but only if the core players & Coaching Staff continue to improve. lol

TD123, thanks for the post. I came to my conclusion after doing an exhaustive stat analysis with PFF and FO in ranking Eagles and Dallas players for 2016 in comparison with stine's . We were actually pretty close in our conclusions. Didn't read this article until you posted it here. Stats definitely have their limits, and strange things happen to turn games around in the blink of an eye. Can't wait for pads to go one and PS games to hopefully bring into focus our CB situation and the continued building of team chemistry heading into the regular season. Proof is always in the puddin and hope we put out a rich puddin for other teams to swallow and choke on this year. Go Eagles!!!

This was a interesting read as well funny Schwartz is on the list since many fans have a bad taste in there mouth when it comes to the wide 9 because of Washburn.......Can not deny that our D was better last year but hard to say if it was more Schwartz or the simple fact that our D was not play 2-3 games worth of extra snaps

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Right now, the strengths and weaknesses of their division rivals shouldn't be the Eagles main concern, because no one can yet know how those team's strengths & weaknesses will differ from last year. Instead the Eagles should be thinking more about their own strengths and weaknesses, and be intently focused on accurately gauging who their best athletes are--per position. Over the past several years, as it turned out, some of the best Eagles players in the pre-season didn't become their starters, and in some cases weren't even on the team when the regular season began. For example, in each of the past two years the Eagles have let go or traded a key player that ended up starting for the team that won the Super Bowl. And in both cases that player was let go from a position that turned out to be the Eagles biggest weakness that year, such as at OL in 2015 (Mathis), and at CB in 2016 (Rowe).

Now, once again, I find myself wondering what similar mistakes will be made in the upcoming 2017 pre-season? For example, I can envision CBs Aaron Grymes & C.J. Smith playing their hearts out during the pre-season and looking good enough to be our rightful starters (just as WR Paul Turner did last pre-season on a team full of 2nd rate WRs), only to lose the starting job once the season begins to players with more 'proven' experience like Brooks, Robinson & Mills (who probably won't all work out). Conversely, I can also see the Eagles confidently making Grymes their new starting slot corner in 2017 and letting go of the veteran Brooks, only to find that they desperately need Brooks half way through the season, just as they did with Rowe last year. No current CB should be let go during the pre-season without a superior CB being added to the team (as the Eagles will need all the help they can get at the position). The same is true for linebacker.

At BleedingGreenNation.com, this morning I read Brandon Lee Gowton's list of players he thinks the Eagles are most likely to let go or trade, and got a laugh when he wrote that "future Hall of Famer Paul Turner" will likely find "a place on the Eagles' practice squad". That's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. Every Eagles article I've read in recent months has focused exclusively on Jordan Matthews and Nelson Agholor (and Torrey Smith) as our potential starting slot receiver in 2017. Yet no one (except me) has proposed that Paul Turner could potentially turn out to be our best slot receiver in 2017 (with Jeffrey & Smith on the outside). The astonishing part of this is: it's not an outrageous suggestion--given that (1) Matthews has clearly become injury prone at this stage of his career, and (2) no receiver in recent NFL history has played as badly as Agholor did in his first two seasons, with a similar amount of snaps, and gone on to become a top starting WR in the NFL (or even an especially good one). It's never happened before. (Apparently not even WR Chris Carter, who had a drug problem in Philly, had stats as bad as Agholor's.) And yet with all the recent glowing talk about Agholor's performance at the recent OTAs--about how good he looked & the many great catches he made (with Jalen Mills defending him), I get the impression the Eagles think Agholor is ready to become our top slot receiver for 2017 and may even challenge Jeffrey & Smith on the outside.

Now, that can't be completely ruled out, as there's always a first time (& Mike Groh may indeed get Agholor back on track--since it's possible that Agholor's dismal play over the past two years wasn't entirely his fault). Therefore, by all means give Agholor a final chance to prove himself in the 2017 pre-season & if he does, great! (then the Eagles will have the option of trading him for a very good linebacker or potential starting cornerback!). In other words, no matter what the eventual outcome is, right now, it's best for the Eagles coaches, media, & fans to remain positive and optimistic on Agholor, as the team can only benefit from encouraging him: since clearly Agholor himself needs to believe he can do it. And who knows, maybe he will put 2015 & 16 far behind him, and silence all criticism in 2017. I hope so.

But, at the end of the day, what the Eagles should really be thinking about Agholor's glowing performance in the OTAs is, more cautiously--if a WR as poor (in the past) as Agholor is beating Jalen Mills in the OTAs, then Mills is likely no where near ready to be our starting CB in 2017, as many have projected. Which suggests that C. J. Smith, Rasul Douglas, Patrick Robinson, & Aaron Grymes, etc., should be given lots of extra playing time in the pre-season games to fully prove what they can do.

Rowe didn't start for NE last year. He only appeared in 9 games.

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Right now, the strengths and weaknesses of their division rivals shouldn't be the Eagles main concern, because no one can yet know how those team's strengths & weaknesses will differ from last year. Instead the Eagles should be thinking more about their own strengths and weaknesses, and be intently focused on accurately gauging who their best athletes are--per position. Over the past several years, as it turned out, some of the best Eagles players in the pre-season didn't become their starters, and in some cases weren't even on the team when the regular season began. For example, in each of the past two years the Eagles have let go or traded a key player that ended up starting for the team that won the Super Bowl. And in both cases that player was let go from a position that turned out to be the Eagles biggest weakness that year, such as at OL in 2015 (Mathis), and at CB in 2016 (Rowe).

Now, once again, I find myself wondering what similar mistakes will be made in the upcoming 2017 pre-season? For example, I can envision CBs Aaron Grymes & C.J. Smith playing their hearts out during the pre-season and looking good enough to be our rightful starters (just as WR Paul Turner did last pre-season on a team full of 2nd rate WRs), only to lose the starting job once the season begins to players with more 'proven' experience like Brooks, Robinson & Mills (who probably won't all work out). Conversely, I can also see the Eagles confidently making Grymes their new starting slot corner in 2017 and letting go of the veteran Brooks, only to find that they desperately need Brooks half way through the season, just as they did with Rowe last year. No current CB should be let go during the pre-season without a superior CB being added to the team (as the Eagles will need all the help they can get at the position). The same is true for linebacker.

At BleedingGreenNation.com, this morning I read Brandon Lee Gowton's list of players he thinks the Eagles are most likely to let go or trade, and got a laugh when he wrote that "future Hall of Famer Paul Turner" will likely find "a place on the Eagles' practice squad". That's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. Every Eagles article I've read in recent months has focused exclusively on Jordan Matthews and Nelson Agholor (and Torrey Smith) as our potential starting slot receiver in 2017. Yet no one (except me) has proposed that Paul Turner could potentially turn out to be our best slot receiver in 2017 (with Jeffrey & Smith on the outside). The astonishing part of this is: it's not an outrageous suggestion--given that (1) Matthews has clearly become injury prone at this stage of his career, and (2) no receiver in recent NFL history has played as badly as Agholor did in his first two seasons, with a similar amount of snaps, and gone on to become a top starting WR in the NFL (or even an especially good one). It's never happened before. (Apparently not even WR Chris Carter, who had a drug problem in Philly, had stats as bad as Agholor's.) And yet with all the recent glowing talk about Agholor's performance at the recent OTAs--about how good he looked & the many great catches he made (with Jalen Mills defending him), I get the impression the Eagles think Agholor is ready to become our top slot receiver for 2017 and may even challenge Jeffrey & Smith on the outside.

Now, that can't be completely ruled out, as there's always a first time (& Mike Groh may indeed get Agholor back on track--since it's possible that Agholor's dismal play over the past two years wasn't entirely his fault). Therefore, by all means give Agholor a final chance to prove himself in the 2017 pre-season & if he does, great! (then the Eagles will have the option of trading him for a very good linebacker or potential starting cornerback!). In other words, no matter what the eventual outcome is, right now, it's best for the Eagles coaches, media, & fans to remain positive and optimistic on Agholor, as the team can only benefit from encouraging him: since clearly Agholor himself needs to believe he can do it. And who knows, maybe he will put 2015 & 16 far behind him, and silence all criticism in 2017. I hope so.

But, at the end of the day, what the Eagles should really be thinking about Agholor's glowing performance in the OTAs is, more cautiously--if a WR as poor (in the past) as Agholor is beating Jalen Mills in the OTAs, then Mills is likely no where near ready to be our starting CB in 2017, as many have projected. Which suggests that C. J. Smith, Rasul Douglas, Patrick Robinson, & Aaron Grymes, etc., should be given lots of extra playing time in the pre-season games to fully prove what they can do.

So many things I can get behind and disagree with in this......Paul Turner had a chance last season during the real games wasn't that impressive best game was a blowout lose to the Bengals where the D was playing soft coverage PS before that was playing fridge NFL talent honestly more interested in Marcus Johnson......CBs not reading a ton into anything that happened in OTAs since it favors the O no contact when our CBs can start to jam and hit the O players then we can start to get a real feel for these guys.....Not sure about Grymes or Smith as starters but do think they have strong chances to make the 53 man roster.... As for Mills still think he is best suited in the slot

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Rohash writes, "Rowe didn't start for NE last year. He only appeared in 9 games."

Eric Rowe was 'inactive' for seven games last year, and then played 9 games for the Patriots, 7 of which he started at either CB or in the slot. He played in all the Patriots' post season games, & played well, including 65% of the snaps in the Super Bowl, where Belichick had him covering Julio Jones. I'm pretty sure Rowe was one of the two starting CBs in the Super Bowl and not Cyrus Jones, though I might be mistaken about that, as they shared duties. For the Eagles, as a rookie, Rowe started only 5 games in 2015, & had his best game in a win against the Patriots with three pass deflections, which apparently got Belichick's attention, but not the Eagles! So I'd say clearly the Patriots saw more potential in Rowe than the Eagles did. In any event, considering how poor the Eagles' CBs were last year, the trade was obviously a gigantic mistake, and it still is.

BleedingGreen93 writes, "Paul Turner had a chance last season during the real games wasn't that impressive..."

I beg to differ. For a first year guy I thought Turner showed very good potential. He proved that he could get open in the NFL and caught every ball thrown in his direction (pre-season & post-season), with his only ball drop come from a slightly tipped pass in the Washington game. Not many noticed, but it was Turner that got himself open in the end zone on the crucial game deciding play at the end of the 2nd Redskins game, when Wentz tried to hit Ertz and got intercepted. If Wentz had seen that Turner was open, we'd have won the game. Turner's combined stats for the pre-season and regular season are impressive--comparable to Antonio Brown's, though granted he had considerably less playing time. While the combined stats for Agholor & DBG were dreadful, not even impressive for a single receiver. Which is more to my point, that the Eagles stubbornly stuck with those latter two WRs, who weren't getting the job done, while not giving Turner much playing time at all. However, it's a brand new season! & I definitely look forward to watching Marcus Johnson in a few weeks!

EaglesOldTimer writes, "I disagree somewhat on your discussion on Agholor. He has had AMPLE opportunity the past two years."

I don't disagree. I'm just hoping for the best outcome. I'd be okay with Agholor getting traded for a more promising player! However, I suppose Greg Lewis may have been part of AG's problems, so I'm open to seeing if Mike Groh can turn him around. But I agree the odds & past stats argue heavily against it, as I pointed out below.

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Turner's combined stats for the pre-season and regular season are impressive--comparable to Antonio Brown's, though granted he had considerably less playing time

Going to have to completely disagree on this one.....Turner has good hands think he might be a solid 4th option but nothing else.....Preseason he never played against 1s and D are vanilla anyway..... As for regular season did nothing to impress me seen a player that struggled to get open along with most of our other WRs.....Think fans want to over hype him maybe he is better this year and proves me wrong but until then I'd pass.....Again my money is on Marcus Johnson think he has way more upside and if he is healthy will show he can help this team

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BleedingGreen93--First, I think we have to be fair to Turner, he didn't play much last year. It's hard to prove you can get open consistently, when you're given so little opportunity. Yet, in only his second game as a rookie, Turner had 5 receptions in one half alone. That's significant. I don't believe another Eagles WR did that all last year, did they?

Here are Turner's stats which I compiled for an earlier post (before the Eagles had signed Jeffrey & Smith), and I think they're worth repeating:

"In 2016, Paul Turner had 9 catches for 126 yards, with a 14 yard average per catch average! If you add to that Turner's preseason of 17 receptions for 165 yards, it gives Turner 26 receptions for 291 yards in 2016, or a 11.19 yard average (compared to Antonio Brown's 12.10 average in the regular season). [Edit: So Turner's stats show that he had actually improved during the regular season from his league leading pre-season.] With that kind of yard average (& Turner's ability to catch everything thrown in his direction--unlike Agholor & Green-Beckham), it would appear that if Turner had played regularly, he'd have easily been more productive than Agholor & Green-Beckham combined, & probably have gone over 1,000 (especially when you consider that Turner felt he had improved as a WR). Most impressively, in only his second NFL game, Turner made 6 receptions (5 in one half!) for 80 yards. In comparison, in the best game of Agholor's NFL career, he had 4 receptions for 64 yards (& Agholor has played many more games than Turner). Yet, the Eagles are unsure about whether Turner can play at a high level in the NFL?

I also gather Turner isn't fast enough. When Antonio Brown came into the NFL, he ran a 4.47 40 yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine. In 2016, Brown improved that speed to 4.35. In comparison, Turner ran a 4.48 40 yard dash in his rookie season--virtually the same as Brown. So, how come Brown's 'slow' speed didn't prevent the Steelers from seeing the light, but for the Eagles, Turner's 4.48 is a negative? Particularly when, like Brown, Turner has proven he's quick enough to get open in the NFL, and as mentioned, he catches virtually every ball thrown in his direction.

I also hear that Turner is too small to play in the NFL. Well, Antonio Brown is 5'10", while Turner is 5'11"--the exact same height as Odell Beckham, Jr.--so again, more Eagles nonsense.

Turner got open more than he was passed to. Watch the films, and you'll see that on a crucial play in the final minutes of the Washington game, when Wentz was intercepted in the end zone (in a pass to Ertz)--which btw cost us the game--Turner was open in the end zone! [Edit: & that was a 'game deciding' play where Turner's ability to get open in the NFL was tested in a major way & he came through.]

If the Eagles had two top receivers, Turner would make an excellent #3. Especially since, with an improved WR corps, Turner would become the guy opposing defenses would forget to cover adequately. Every championship team needs a player like that."

Granted, I wrote that post at the end of last year (before the signings of Jeffrey & Smith). And, if you're right & Marcus Johnson is better than Turner now, then of course I'm all for Johnson getting ample opportunity to prove himself in the up coming pre-season.

Edited July 9, 2017 by MrSimpsoncorrection

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BleedingGreen93--First, I think we have to be fair to Turner, he didn't play much last year. It's hard to prove you can get open consistently, when you're given so little opportunity. Yet, in only his second game as a rookie, Turner had 5 receptions in one half alone. That's significant. I don't believe another Eagles WR did that all last year, did they?

Think Paul deserves his chance like the rest of the guy just not all that impressed from what I see last season from him but our entire WR group was unimpressive last season......If the Eagles keep 6 WRs he would be in my top 6 guys on roster right now Alshon/Torrey/Jmatt/Hollins/Johnson/ Turner being my top 6 so far don't think Gibson deserves a spot but still a ton of off-season to go so likely to change

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BleedingGreen93--First, I think we have to be fair to Turner, he didn't play much last year. It's hard to prove you can get open consistently, when you're given so little opportunity. Yet, in only his second game as a rookie, Turner had 5 receptions in one half alone. That's significant. I don't believe another Eagles WR did that all last year, did they?

Think Paul deserves his chance like the rest of the guy just not all that impressed from what I see last season from him but our entire WR group was unimpressive last season......If the Eagles keep 6 WRs he would be in my top 6 guys on roster right now Alshon/Torrey/Jmatt/Hollins/Johnson/ Turner being my top 6 so far don't think Gibson deserves a spot but still a ton of off-season to go so likely to change

Welker, Amendola, Edelman, Turner. Give him a chance. It's all in how he is used.

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Turner's combined stats for the pre-season and regular season are impressive--comparable to Antonio Brown's, though granted he had considerably less playing time

Going to have to completely disagree on this one.....Turner has good hands think he might be a solid 4th option but nothing else.....Preseason he never played against 1s and D are vanilla anyway..... As for regular season did nothing to impress me seen a player that struggled to get open along with most of our other WRs.....Think fans want to over hype him maybe he is better this year and proves me wrong but until then I'd pass.....Again my money is on Marcus Johnson think he has way more upside and if he is healthy will show he can help this team

Turner has good hands. That says it. No one on this team did last year.

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TD123, thanks for the post. I came to my conclusion after doing an exhaustive stat analysis with PFF and FO in ranking Eagles and Dallas players for 2016 in comparison with stine's . We were actually pretty close in our conclusions. Didn't read this article until you posted it here. Stats definitely have their limits, and strange things happen to turn games around in the blink of an eye. Can't wait for pads to go one and PS games to hopefully bring into focus our CB situation and the continued building of team chemistry heading into the regular season. Proof is always in the puddin and hope we put out a rich puddin for other teams to swallow and choke on this year. Go Eagles!!!

You're welcome. I'm not much on stats. Some tell the tale and some are useless. Just 1 turnover or a little bit of luck in having a penalty called in your teams favor can turn a game around. I liked yours and stine's team comparison ratings;thought they were pretty accurate going by what we heard so far in the news. I too CAN"T WAIT till the pads go on. LET'S GET IT ON,GO EAGLES!

The start of Eagles training camp is only two weeks away. Rookies, quarterbacks, and select veterans report on Sunday, July 23.(The rest of the team reports on July 26 to start full participation on Thur. the 27th.) In the meantime, Wentz will get some extra reps in with his wide receivers and tight ends. Nice to see the Eagles’ young quarterback showing leadership and building chemistry with his teammates both on and off the field.

UPDATE: Nelson Agholor has also arrived in North Dakota, per his Instagram.………………

UPDATE TWO: Torrey Smith posted a video of him and Shelton Gibson at the airport today.………………

Passionate has often been a term used in describing fans of the Philadelphia Eagles.…………They haven’t always shown their best face. They drink, and they can be loud, but they’re also passionate and loyal. It doesn’t matter if they live in California or in Manayunk because you’ll find them sporting an Eagles jersey. They’ll welcome you with open arms and treat you like you’ve been a friend of theirs for years. If you’re wearing a Dallas Cowboys jersey, then you may be on the receiving end of some very foul language and some dirty looks.……………

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Right now, the strengths and weaknesses of their division rivals shouldn't be the Eagles main concern, because no one can yet know how those team's strengths & weaknesses will differ from last year. Instead the Eagles should be thinking more about their own strengths and weaknesses, and be intently focused on accurately gauging who their best athletes are--per position. Over the past several years, as it turned out, some of the best Eagles players in the pre-season didn't become their starters, and in some cases weren't even on the team when the regular season began. For example, in each of the past two years the Eagles have let go or traded a key player that ended up starting for the team that won the Super Bowl. And in both cases that player was let go from a position that turned out to be the Eagles biggest weakness that year, such as at OL in 2015 (Mathis), and at CB in 2016 (Rowe).

Now, once again, I find myself wondering what similar mistakes will be made in the upcoming 2017 pre-season? For example, I can envision CBs Aaron Grymes & C.J. Smith playing their hearts out during the pre-season and looking good enough to be our rightful starters (just as WR Paul Turner did last pre-season on a team full of 2nd rate WRs), only to lose the starting job once the season begins to players with more 'proven' experience like Brooks, Robinson & Mills (who probably won't all work out). Conversely, I can also see the Eagles confidently making Grymes their new starting slot corner in 2017 and letting go of the veteran Brooks, only to find that they desperately need Brooks half way through the season, just as they did with Rowe last year. No current CB should be let go during the pre-season without a superior CB being added to the team (as the Eagles will need all the help they can get at the position). The same is true for linebacker.

At BleedingGreenNation.com, this morning I read Brandon Lee Gowton's list of players he thinks the Eagles are most likely to let go or trade, and got a laugh when he wrote that "future Hall of Famer Paul Turner" will likely find "a place on the Eagles' practice squad". That's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. Every Eagles article I've read in recent months has focused exclusively on Jordan Matthews and Nelson Agholor (and Torrey Smith) as our potential starting slot receiver in 2017. Yet no one (except me) has proposed that Paul Turner could potentially turn out to be our best slot receiver in 2017 (with Jeffrey & Smith on the outside). The astonishing part of this is: it's not an outrageous suggestion--given that (1) Matthews has clearly become injury prone at this stage of his career, and (2) no receiver in recent NFL history has played as badly as Agholor did in his first two seasons, with a similar amount of snaps, and gone on to become a top starting WR in the NFL (or even an especially good one). It's never happened before. (Apparently not even WR Chris Carter, who had a drug problem in Philly, had stats as bad as Agholor's.) And yet with all the recent glowing talk about Agholor's performance at the recent OTAs--about how good he looked & the many great catches he made (with Jalen Mills defending him), I get the impression the Eagles think Agholor is ready to become our top slot receiver for 2017 and may even challenge Jeffrey & Smith on the outside.

Now, that can't be completely ruled out, as there's always a first time (& Mike Groh may indeed get Agholor back on track--since it's possible that Agholor's dismal play over the past two years wasn't entirely his fault). Therefore, by all means give Agholor a final chance to prove himself in the 2017 pre-season & if he does, great! (then the Eagles will have the option of trading him for a very good linebacker or potential starting cornerback!). In other words, no matter what the eventual outcome is, right now, it's best for the Eagles coaches, media, & fans to remain positive and optimistic on Agholor, as the team can only benefit from encouraging him: since clearly Agholor himself needs to believe he can do it. And who knows, maybe he will put 2015 & 16 far behind him, and silence all criticism in 2017. I hope so.

But, at the end of the day, what the Eagles should really be thinking about Agholor's glowing performance in the OTAs is, more cautiously--if a WR as poor (in the past) as Agholor is beating Jalen Mills in the OTAs, then Mills is likely no where near ready to be our starting CB in 2017, as many have projected. Which suggests that C. J. Smith, Rasul Douglas, Patrick Robinson, & Aaron Grymes, etc., should be given lots of extra playing time in the pre-season games to fully prove what they can do.

Mathis wanted a better contract for more years with the Eagles. Granted, they should have kept him for another year but let him go and saved cash. He played 1 more year with Denver and the following year he went on IR 10/8. He is now out of football. Rowe is being used as a situational player in NE and has yet to play 50% of the snaps. In a league where teams pass over 50% of the time, it seems he is not a yet deemed starting talent. Granted, the Eagles got little for him and most likely should have kept him, but he was not the best player on our squad and is not a top 2 on NE's yet. So I am not all that upset over either decision to be honest. If Rowe does crack in the top 2 for NE we will get a 3rd round pick for him next April. You cannot place allot of stock into practices, so I reserve Judgment on Mills. They are not even using pads yet and Agholor was a practice demon last year too, making play after play.... It was once it mattered that he played terrible.

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Mathis wanted a better contract for more years with the Eagles. Granted, they should have kept him for another year but let him go and saved cash. He played 1 more year with Denver and the following year he went on IR 10/8. He is now out of football. Rowe is being used as a situational player in NE and has yet to play 50% of the snaps. In a league where teams pass over 50% of the time, it seems he is not a yet deemed starting talent. Granted, the Eagles got little for him and most likely should have kept him, but he was not the best player on our squad and is not a top 2 on NE's yet. So I am not all that upset over either decision to be honest. If Rowe does crack in the top 2 for NE we will get a 3rd round pick for him next April. You cannot place allot of stock into practices, so I reserve Judgment on Mills. They are not even using pads yet and Agholor was a practice demon last year too, making play after play.... It was once it mattered that he played terrible.

Agree 100%. Could not have said it better myself. When pads go on and PS games are played, should at least give us some basic indicators on how well this team can or will perform.Mills most likely playing "off" the WR's so can't tell on either side of the ball of who's doing poorly and who's doing great. Coaches know for sure. Hope we'll be pleasantly surprised. Go Eagles!!